Talk about choosing your own poison&

Fri, 2004-09-03 13:35

Looking for a reason to plan a meeting in London? How about the allure of scientific oddities, on view to the public for the first time at London s Science Museum.

In the medical section are displays of dentists' chairs through the ages, drills for making holes in people's skulls to let demons out, false teeth in a range of colours and ivory models of the male and female anatomy.

One of the most peculiar items is a small bottle labelled "Aphrodisiac" containing a variety of pills and carrying in small print at the bottom the warning "poison"

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Or, if you want to stay in the U.S., AMNews offers a great selection of slightly odd possible medical museums of interest to docs while they re in town for your meetings.

Mütter Museum, Philadelphia (includes more than 2,000 objects removed from the throats and airways of patients)

National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Md. (includes a a frock coat and boots worn by Union surgeon Louis Daniel Radzinsky, who became an assistant surgeon with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the unit of black soldiers depicted in the film "Glory.")

Country Doctor Museum, Bailey, N.C. (includes a display of a Civil War amputation set used by two doctors to amputate an arm of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in 1863)